One of my children joined our local training band a couple of years ago. Being the good parent I am, I often stayed to listen and was finally persuaded to have a go on a cornet.
A year or so later I am loving every minute and have steadily progressed to be one of the better players on the front row.
Of course the youngsters, if they keep it up, will far surpass me, but I just wandered how many players out there started late (in their 30s or 40s). How far can you expect to progress. Were all players in top section bands child prodigies?
I didn't start in my 30s or 40s; I was 68 - allowing for time off with heart surgery, and post-surgical problems (mainly down to my rabid allergies to some of the pills I was given!), I've probably been playing for about 18 months total. I was put back a bit, because I started on Baritone, but then had lung problems kick off last winter, which left me really struggling to fill it, so switched to Tenor Horn (which felt like trying to spit through a pea-shooter!). Switching from Bb to Eb was tricky enough when playing a melody in one of my training books, but even more so when playing Eb Tenor parts, which are quite different from the main melody - so I find myself playing a certain note, and not being sure whether it was supposed to sound like that, or did I play a dud note! But I'm slowly getting the feel of it, and hope to be playing with the junior band by September.
Re. your experience of getting drawn into it; a friend used to bring her son to practise when he started, as he was too young to drive, and there was no bus service where they lived. Rather than sit outside in the car, she came into the band room and sat at the back. Her son progressed to where he was in the main band, so she found herself attending main band practises, and picking up all sorts of hints and tips about how to play, and how
not to play! By the time her son was old enough to have passed his driving test, and she wasn't needed to ferry him to and fro, she'd made a number of friends in the band, and realised she didn't want to lose touch with them.
"Come and join yourself, then!" they said - so she did, and found that all the knowledge she'd picked up whilst attending rehearsals with her son really helped. She now plays 1st Baritone in the main band.
As to why I never tried playing brass sooner; as a nipper, I'd tried piano and violin, and couldn't get on with either; in my 20s, I tried playing acoustic guitar - and found enormous difficulty in pressing the strings down to make a chord (probably because the action on the cheapo guitar I had was way too high), but most of all because it was strung with round-wound strings, and I couldn't bear the horrible scratching sound they made when sliding up and down the strings. Funny, the way even such a small point can put you right off . . .
The annoying bit is that, nearly 40 years ago, two good friends of mine played with the Sussex Brass, and I've no doubt that if I'd expressed any interest in playing, they'd have been happy to let me have a go on their instruments, and take me along to their band on learner's night - but, by that time, I just 'knew' that, much as I loved music, I just wasn't cut out to be a musician myself. I could KICK myself now, for all the enjoyment and satisfaction I've missed out on - including the friendship in a good band - and I can't help but wonder; what sort of stuff would I be playing now, if I'd only had a go on brass back then?
So, is it ever too late to start, however old you are?
NEVER!! You never know what you might be capable of until you give it a go! And I've read of several people on here that started playing even later in life than I did.
Oh, and I've started learning bass guitar, now, too . . . I've always liked the sound of a bass guitar much better than a regular one, so why not?
It keeps me from hanging round on street corners . . .
With best regards,
Jack
